Balls & Strikes, How Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” Will Make Law School Unaffordable For People Who Are Not Already Rich:
Sweeping changes to key student loan programs will make it harder for aspiring public interest attorneys to attend law school—and exacerbate this country’s existing justice gap in the process.
President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which he signed into law on July 4, cut benefits for low-income Americans, slashed taxes for the highest earners, and turned ICE into the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the country overnight. Understandably, its changes to federal student loan programs have flown a bit more below the radar.
But the law is disastrous for students trying to pay their exorbitant (and always increasing) tuition bills. By abolishing Graduate PLUS loans and reducing the cap on Pell Grants, the budget reconciliation bill decimates access to law school for people from low-income backgrounds. Reducing the availability of financial aid threatens the futures of an entire class of aspiring public interest attorneys—people who want to serve in roles that benefit underserved communities, but that do not come with the premium salaries paid out by large law firms.
Low-income and first-generation students are already underrepresented in legal education, yet they are often the very individuals who are most inclined to enter public interest law. One study found that only two percent of law students at top schools come from the bottom quarter of incomes. Meanwhile, first-generation college graduates pursue careers in legal aid, public defense, or nonprofit advocacy work at nearly twice the national average.
Students who want to go into public service need more options, not fewer. Congress’s choice to cut back on financial aid is an attack not only on these students, but on the people who don’t get the legal help they need because of it. The Legal Services Corporation study showed that 92 percent of this country’s low-income households had unmet legal needs even before these funding cuts. Reducing the supply of public interest lawyers can only make things worse.
Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:
- AccessLex, The Impact of Capping Graduate Loans on Law Students
- Chronicle of Higher Education, The End Of Unlimited Grad-School Loans Could Leave Some Law Schools And Students In The Lurch
- Chronicle of Higher Education, Free-Standing Law Schools Would Be Most Impacted By Republican Proposal To Eliminate Grad PLUS Loans
- Steven Chung (Tax Attorney, Los Angeles), The Impact Of The One Big Beautiful Bill Act's Federal Student Loan Limits On Law Schools
- Derek Muller (Notre Dame), Law Schools Are Unprepared For A Likely Coming Cap On Federal Student Loans
- Derek Muller (Notre Dame), Will the New Student Loan Law Hobble Some Law Schools' Reliance on Non-JD Forms of Revenue?
- Reuters, Closure Of U.S. Department Of Education Imperils Law School Finances, Deans Say
- Reuters, Proposed Law Student Loan Caps Could Hit Minorities, Low-Ranked Law Schools The Hardest
- Jeff Sovern (Maryland), The Impact Of A $150,000 Cap On Government Loans For Law Students
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